The Mildred Fish-Harnack

Democracy and Human Rights Lecture

A program of the UW-Madison Division of International Studies and the Human Rights Initiative

Human Rights Challenges in the 21st Century

Mary Robinson

Former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

September 2008

Lectures in the Series

Pierre Sauvage
Award-winning filmmaker, producer and screenwriter
"Did Americans Fight the Holocaust"

Larry Cox
Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
“The War on Human Rights”

Brun-Otto Bryde
Judge, Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
“Fundamental Rights as Guidelines and Inspiration: German Constitutionalism in International Perspective”

Jose Zalaquett
Professor of Human Rights
Law School, University of Chile
“Towards International Justice: A Critical Assessment”

Yash Ghai
SirYK Pao Professor of Public Law
Hong KongUniversity
“The Challenge of Ethnicity to Human Rights”

Juan Pablo Letelier
Chilean Legislator and Human Rights Activist
“The Arrest of Pinochet, Human Rights, and Justice in Chile”
November, 1999

Isabelle R. Gunning
Professor of Law
Southwestern UniversitySchool of Law
“New Issues for Women in International Human Rights”

In Honor of Mildred Fish-Harnack

The Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture is designed to promote greater understanding of human rights and democracy, and enrich international studies on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The Division of International Studies brings to campus a distinguished individual who has contributed to the cause of human rights through scholarship and leadership. The invited speaker gives a major public lecture, and meets with students and faculty in classrooms or more informal settings. Campus visits also provide guests with the opportunity to learn more about international studies and related activities at UW-Madison.

Mildred Fish-Harnack, a native of Milwaukee, was a vibrant and active student while at the UW-Madison. Her strong beliefs in democracy and freedom were mirrored in the heroic anti-Nazi resistance work in which she and her husband engaged during World War II.Upon earning a bachelor’s degree in 1925 and a master’s degree in 1926 from UW-Madison, Fish-Harnack taught in the English Department and wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal and the Wisconsin Literary Magazine. She married Arvid Harnack, a young German graduate student, and returned with him to Germany. Mildred taught American literature at the University of Berlin while Arvid worked on the American desk at the Ministry of Economics. During the 1930s, they watched the rise of Hitler, which represented the antithesis of their democratic ideals honed while students at UW-Madison. At great risk, the Harnacks organized a resistance group of more than 130 men and women. They arranged the escape of dissidents and Jews, published an underground newsletter, and gave economic information to the U.S. and Soviet embassies in Berlin. After Germany’s invasion of Russia, the group transmitted military intelligence to Moscow via radio “concerts,” prompting the Gestapo to dub them the “Red Orchestra.”

Arrested in 1942, Arvid Harnack was executed, and Mildred was sentenced to six years hard labor. Hitler reviewed the verdict, however, and ordered a retrial which produced a death sentence. She was guillotined on February 16, 1943, the only American civilian to be executed by Hitler as an underground conspirator. In 1986, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill naming September 16, Harnack’s birthdate, “Mildred Harnack Day” in Wisconsin. The Division of International Studies and the Global Legal Studies Center are proud to honor her courage, idealism, and self-sacrifice with this lecture series.